We Can Only Go Up From Here
by FamousNoOne
Summary: Right after the Final Battle, Hannah is searching desperately for Neville while also being tormented by her thoughts, thoughts she wishes would disappear. Rated T because, you know, sadness and such...


**A/N: Hello, lovelies! Many apologies if I'm annoying you with all of these updates, but none of you have said anything yet!**

**This is sort of an angsty piece, and I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but hey, at least I have some sort of inspiration, right?**

**Anyway, this is just Hannah and all of her thoughts after the Final Battle.**

**Enjoy! :)**

We Can Only Go Up From Here

Making my way through the rubble, I searched desperately for the only person I wanted to talk to. I hadn't seen him since he cut the head off that damn snake and the Final Battle had begun. Seamus and I had been rather preoccupied fighting Death Eaters and, at one point, Voldemort himself, and so I hadn't seen Neville since, and I needed to make sure he was okay.

Neville, who had spoken to me on many an occasion about not feeling like he was meant to be in Gryffindor, and that I was too brave for Hufflepuff. But I knew that wasn't the case; Neville had always been far braver than I could ever have hoped to be, and I, of course, prided myself on my unwavering loyalty to those who deserved it.

And Neville deserved it. Ever since fifth year, and the beginning of Dumbledore's Army, he and I had been friends. We often worked together, perfecting spells, and one time, at the end of the year, he told me that he felt he could trust me enough to tell me what happened to his parents. I was happy that he could trust me, but I've never been able to look at him the same once I discovered what happened to Frank and Alice Longbottom. Neville expected my pity, but he didn't get it. I saw Neville in a new light; I knew he was destined for greatness. He was the victim of a hateful crime, and his parents had been torn from him because they, too, were incredibly brave, and Neville needed to see that. I spent countless hours trying to convince him, but I never could.

And then, when my mother was killed in the summer before sixth year, Neville was the only person I could turn to. He was the only person I felt close to, and he was the person I needed. We wrote to each other often that summer, and when we returned to school something had changed between us, but neither of us were ready to act on that change.

And then, seventh year came along, and the Carrows with it. After we restarted the DA Neville and I grew closer than ever. Neville, Ginny, Seamus, Luna, and I made an effort to take the school back from Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and a togetherness came from that, an unbreakable bond for which I will be forever thankful. Were it not for these new friends, I doubt I would have come out of the war alive.

The war. The war that had been brewing for, I now knew, sixteen and a half long years, was over. Now we could begin repairing everything that had been broken; homes, families, hearts…

I stopped walking and fell to the ground. We had lost so many people, so many good people. Fred Weasley, Professor Lupin and his wife, Lavender, Colin Creevey… The list was too long. Entirely too long.

I stayed there for what seemed like ages, not able to stop the heaving sobs that felt like they would tear my chest apart, until I felt an arm around my shoulder. I jumped at the contact, still extremely cautious, but when I looked up and saw the eyes of the one person I needed at that moment, a cry of joy escaped my lips and I threw my arms around him, not wanting to ever let him go.

Neville was here, with me, and it was then that I knew what I needed the most from him: his love. But I knew that would have to wait. There were too many things that needed to be done before any of us could think of love. There was still too much hate left in the world, and in our hearts, for there to be room for something like that.

But we would all get better. We would recover eventually, with help from friends and family, and then we could open our hearts to the idea of loving someone.

Right now it was too soon for that. But in the future, when we had all made peace with what happened, I knew that everything would be better. It had to be. We had seen the worst; we could only go up from there.


End file.
